 | | Iskry
Warsaw 2003
© Józef Hen
155 x 240
542 pages
ISBN 83-207-1739-6
hardcover |
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Józef HenMy Friend the King
Excerpt
Józef Hen’s latest book is a literary portrayal of the life and reign of King Stanisław August, who is described by Polish historians as having been “the best minister of culture in history”, but who is often accused of vacillation, weakness and a political inertia that led to the fall of the Polish state. His story is told by an incisive observer and commentator on events called Gaston Fabre, the king’s French secretary and friend. Although Fabre is a fictional character, he is a probable one – his cousin is easily identifiable as the French historian Jean Fabre, a great admirer of the king who wrote a monograph about him. In the novel, some years after Stanisław August’s death, feeling that he has a mission to save the king’s good name, Gaston Fabre publishes the material he collected for years on end while in the king’s inner circle. From these notes there emerges the portrait of an enlightened, ambitious and patriotic king, conscious of his role and perfectly aware of everything that’s going on in Poland and the world at large. The author is not afraid to cast light on the king’s doubts and indecisions, which are usually passed over in silence, and the sacrifices and choices he had to make. In describing the eighteenth-century courts and the customs that prevailed there, he creates a reliable historical picture, based on documents, letters and memoirs of Stanisław August.
Józef Hen (born 1932) is a novelist, playwright and screenwriter. His works include novels set in wartime and in the historical past, as well as in modern times. He is an acclaimed essayist, and has written a biography of Montaigne, as well as stories about such colourful characters as Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, who was famous as a scholar, critic and translator of French literature before the war. Józef Hen’s work has been translated into 18 languages.
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